Some departments and organizations on the UVM campus may choose to set up their own World Wide Web servers instead of choosing an existing Web server. Some considerations for running a Web server that will be linked into the UVM home page are discussed here.
The serving machine must be left on and connected to the Internet at all times for the Web pages to be accessible. The system administrator should be on call at all times in case the system goes down.
The serving machine can be a UNIX workstation, a DOS machine, or a Macintosh. It should provide rapid, reliable response, and it must be capable of handling the activity placed on it by Web request for information.
If you choose to set up a server, remember that the Internet address you choose will be displayed to people who view pages on your machine, so select a name that does not have negative connotations. You need to send mail to uvm-dns@telcom.uvm.edu requesting a name for your server. The message should include:
You will need someone to select, run, and maintain the software. Beside the server software itself, you will need file transfer software, statistics reporting software, indexing and retrieval software, etc. While it will be the responsibility of your system administrator to select and maintain the software, compatibility across campus platforms is desirable, so we recommend you look at the software currently in use on the Office of Information Technology's Ra computer as a starting point for consideration on your server. [Need a link to a software list here.]
There are several reasons:
CIT staff and the uvm.websters newsgroup can provide some assistance in setting up a Web server. However, CIT's primary responsibility is to provide services on www.uvm.edu and help people put their information on it. Assistance to people who want to put up their own information servers has lower priority.
There are a few other newsgroups of interest to people who maintain Web servers, including the following:
